Letters to the Editor - Oakdale - Lake Elmo Review

To the Editor,
My husband and I recently bought a home in Oakdale. When sharing with family members about the location of our home, we heard the question, you know what school district you will be in right? It was disturbing to discover that our school district, District 622, has the lowest per-pupil operating budget compared to the top 20 largest districts in the Twin Cities metro area.

To the Editor,
With the beginning of the 2016 legislative session only months away, I strongly encourage any high school junior with an interest in the political process to consider becoming a page in the Minnesota House of Representatives High School Page Program.

To the Editor:
Many have watched the lack of respect and civility here in Lake Elmo, directed at the three councilwomen. Anger and picket signs are everywhere! People disrupt council meetings. Problems are solved with tractor brigades and blind obedience to mob-mentality. We have become a little town of cowards and unkind people, stuck somewhere in the past. Many of us went to Stillwater schools together, as did our parents, children, and grandchildren. Yet websites and Facebook mock our councilwomen. Would you like to see cartoons and comments of your wife or mother? Please stop!

To the Editor:
Building a $485 million Gateway Corridor transit way is in the works in order to provide 15-minute all-day bus service from St Paul to Lake Elmo/Woodbury. I applaud the effort to increase transit but $485 MILLION is four times the cost of adding a regular route bus. Would residents and businesses along 4th Street N. in Oakdale like an explanation from their elected officials about the proposed so-called: bus rapid transit (BRT) along 4th St from 694 to Inwood Ave?

To the Editor:
The issue of Sunday alcohol sales is at the Capitol again this year. As the owner of a small retail liquor store in Oakdale, The Four Firkins, I’m very much in support of repealing this antiquated restriction.

As the former Oakdale Parks and Recreation Commission Chair I had the opportunity to work with city council member Paul Reinke. His extensive business and leadership experience are clearly reflected in his work in support and advocacy for the city.

Prior to 2014 under the Met Council’s Memorandum of Understanding, the population requirement for Lake Elmo was 24,000 and sewer requirements were 6,600 units, with 1,400 units for businesses, 1,000 units for existing homes in Cimarron and the Old Village, and leaving 4,200 new sewered houses to be built by the year 2030.

We have lived in Oakdale over 50 years and during that time have seen many faces on our council and in the mayor’s chair. None have impressed us as as much as Paul Reinke has during his time on the council.